[9] From the 560s, the Western Turks had gradually expanded southeasterward from Transoxonia, and occupied Bactria and the Hindu Kush region, forming largely independent polities.

The Turk Shahis then resisted for more than 250 years the eastward expansion of the Abbasid Caliphate, until they fell to the Persian Saffarids in the 9th century AD.

[17] He was also likely to be the unnamed ruler who was confirmed as Governor of Jibin under the newly formed Chinese Anxi Protectorate in 661 CE and would broker a peace-treaty with the Arabs, the same year.

[18][19] Nonetheless, in 664-665 CE, Abd al-Rahman ibn Samura launched an expedition to reconquer the territories lost during the Caliphate Wars.

[c] According to Hyecho, who visited the region about 50 years after the events, the first Shahi ruler of Kapisi — named Barha Tegin by Al-Biruni — was an usurper, who used to be a military commander in the service of the last Nezak King.

[26][27][d] Al-Biruni provides a rather legendary account of Barhategin's rise, extrapolating from multiple mythological motifs,[e] and the precise circumstances surrounding the dawning of the Turk Shahis remain unclear.

[34][35] According to Chinese sources, in particular the chronicles of the Cefu Yuangui, the Turks in Kabul were vassals of the Yabghus of Tokharistan, who in turn swore allegiance to the Tangs.

[36][37][g][h] Under Barha Tegin, the Shahis mounted a counter-offensive and repulsed the Arab forces after Abd al-Rahman ibn Samura was replaced as Governor of Sistan c.665 CE, taking back lost territory as far as the region of Arachosia and Kandahar.

[42] The Arabs attempted a counter-offensive when Rabi ibn Ziyad al-Harithi assumed the governorship of Sistan in 671 CE, attacking the Turkic "Rutbil" at Bost, and driving him to al-Rukhkhaj (Arachosia).

[41][44] His territory comprised the area from Kabulistan to Gandhara and initially included Zabulistan, which came to be ruled by Rutbil (Turkic: Iltäbär), his elder brother, who founded the dynasty of the Zunbils.

The official Chinese recognition of the enthronement of Tegin Shah appears in the annals of the Tangshu: In the seventh year of the Kaiyuan reign [719 CE], [Jibin (Kabul) dispatched] envoys to the [Tang] court, who offered up a book of an astrological text, secret medical recipes, together with foreign medecines and other things.

[68] Fromo Kesaro's victories may have forged parts of the epic legend of the Tibetan King whose name appears to be phonetically similar: Phrom Ge-sar.

[4][69] In 745 AD, Fromo Kesaro's son Bo Fuzhun (勃匐準 Bo Fuzhun in Chinese sources) became the king, as recorded in the Old Book of Tang;[m] he was simultaneously conferred with the Tang title "General of the Left", which probably alludes to a strategic relationship between the Chinese and the Turk Shahis, in the context of expanding Islamic frontiers.

[4] Hoping to take advantage of the Great Abbasid Civil War (811-819 AD), the Turk Shahi, named "Pati Dumi" in Arab sources, invaded parts of Khorasan.

[65] Following Al-Azraqi's initial account of 834 AD, Quṭb ed-Dîn wrote: Now, when this King converted to Islam, he decided that the throne with the idol should be given as an offering for the Ka'ba.

He therefore sent the throne to Al-Ma'mun in Merv, who then sent it to Al-Hasan ibn Sahl in Wasit, who in turn charged one of his lieutenants from Balkh, Naçîr ben Ibrahim, with accompanying it to Mecca.

When they returned from Mina, Naçîr ben Ibrahim placed the throne with the carpet and the idol in the center of the square dedicated to Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, between Safa and Marwa, where it remained for three days.Al-Azraqi also made a very detailed description of the statue, which points to a crowned and bejewelled Buddha seated on a throne, a design otherwise well known and quite specific to this historical period for the region of Afghanistan and Kashmir.

[88] In the south, the Zunbil Turk Shahis escaped unaffected and continued to rule for about two more decades, before falling in 870/871 AD to the Saffarids under an upstart adventurer Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar.

[89] According to the Arab chronicler al-Biruni, the last Turk Shahi ruler of Kabul, Lagaturman—probable son of Pati Dumi—was deposed by a Brahmin minister, named Kallar around 822 AD.

[93] When Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang visited northwestern India in c. 630 AD, he reported that Buddhism had drastically declined, and that most of the monasteries were deserted and left in ruins.

[92][95] There was a renewed patronage of Buddhism in the area of Afghanistan during the 7-8th century AD as a function of the expansion of the Tang dynasty power in Central Asia at that time, just as the Arabs were pressuring Khorasan and Sistan.

[96] The Korean pilgrim Hui Chao in 726 AD recorded in the Chinese language that the Turkic (突厥, Tū-chuèh) rulers of Kapisa ("Jibin") followed the Triratna and dedicated many Buddhist temples:[92] (...) 至罽賓國。(...) 此國土人是胡。王及兵馬突厥。(...) 國人大敬信三寶。足寺足僧。百姓家各絲造寺。供養三寶。大城中有一寺。名沙糸寺。寺中貝佛螺髻骨舍利見在王官百姓每日供養。此國行小乘。 (...) I arrived in Jibin.(...)

[96] Chinese monks were probably directly in charge of some of the Buddhist sanctuaries of Central Asia, such as the temple of Suiye (near Tokmak in present-day Kirghizistan).

[92][101] At the end of the 10th century, the Samanid Empire led by the Turk ghulams Alp Tigin established itself in Eastern Afghanistan, later followed by the Ghaznavid dynasty.

[100] The Western Turks in Afghanistan are generally associated with a major revival of Gandharan Buddhist art between the 7th and 9th century CE, especially in the areas of Bamiyan, Kabul and Ghazni, with major new Buddhist sites such as Tapa Sardar in Ghazni, or Tepe Narenj and Mes Aynak near Kabul, which remained active at least until the 9th century CE.

[103] This process and chronology are visible in the archaeological site of Tapa Sardar near Ghazni in Afghanistan, while this new form of art appears in its mature state in Fondukistan.

[62] The style as well as the techniques used in making these works of art (modelling of clay mixed with straw, wool or horsehair), are characteristic of the paintings and sculptures of Central Asia.

[118] The new region occupied by the Turk Shahis had numerous Buddhist monasteries, such as Mes Aynak, which appear to have remained in use until the 9th century CE.

[60][1][119] The royal couple consists in a princess in "Indian" dress, and a prince "wearing a rich caftan with double lapel and boots", characteristic of Central Asian clothing.

Now people honoured him as a being of miraculous origin, who had been destined to be king, and in fact he brought those countries under his sway and ruled them under the title of a Shahiya of Kabul.